10 Women-Run Food Businesses You Should Be Supporting

When you’re trying to effect change — trying to live more purposefully —it’s easy to get overwhelmed. How do you start small when you want to do something big? We don’t have all the answers, but we do know the easiest place to begin: your kitchen.

Look at the foods and products you bring into your house as choices you’re making — people you’re supporting. In honor of Women’s History Month, we did just that. We sifted through all the awesome brands shaking things up in the food industry and cherry-picked 10 of our favorites that have women at the helm. These women are former event planners, stay-at-home moms, and magazine editors — and, now, CEOs.

When you ask Ellen Bennett what she’s most proud of, the answer’s not what you might expect the chef turned “Apron Lady” to say. It’s not the fact that she founded a now multi-million dollar company at the age of 25 — or that she’s managed to pick up famous chef fans including Martha Stewart, Alton Brown, and Christina Tosi along the way. “I’m most proud of the fact that I get to employ and support families because of a dream I had,” she gushes. “Every day, when I walk into our office, I think, wow, we created this.”

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Pride is sort of why Bennett started Hedley & Bennett in the first place. “I was a line cook in an amazing restaurant, but I didn’t feel confident when I was working,” she explains. “I wanted to create a line of chefware so that chefs would have dignity while in the kitchen — and look good at the same time.” She’s up to five styles of aprons in dozens of colors, plus chef coats, knife bags, and socks.

“When people see what my team has created, I think it hits them in a way that it wouldn’t if I was a guy,” Bennett says. “I’m breaking the stigma that you have to be a male — an older dude — to run a company.

Ali Maffucci didn’t invent zoodles, but she’s probably the reason you’ve heard of them. “As soon as I discovered spiralizing, I knew I wanted to build a community around it,” she says. Her community is up to 188,000 Instagram followers, and she talks to them like they're her family.

Empire might be more accurate than community, though: Maffucci just released her third cookbook, Inspiralized and Beyond, runs a blog devoted to veggie noodles, and created her own spiralizer brand. The tool comes in a 10-inch size and a mini version, and you can run just about any veggie through it: potatoes, carrots, beets, onions.

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The 30-year-old CEO’s not blind to the fact she accomplished everything without a Y chromosome; she just doesn’t like to harp on it. “I’m hoping in the future, we won’t have to talk about female or male entrepreneurs; I just want people to be entrepreneurs,” Maffucci quips.

Who: Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir; Co-Founders, Yes Way RoséWhat: The Wine That Instagram Made

When Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir set out to start a business together, they found out working with a friend has the same reputation as living with one. “People told us it would never work,” Blumenthal remembers. “But we feel like what we’ve been able to accomplish as a team is unbelievable.”

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The duo started their Instagram account — @yeswayrose — in 2013, as a creative outlet. They soon created swag (beach towels, tank tops, candles), picked up a celeb superfan in Drew Barrymore (she’s their “guardian rosé angel”), and, just last month, launched their own bottles of wine at Target.

“Every single one of our friends — women and men — have contributed in some way," Huganir says, "and it’s the most beautiful, heart-warming thing.”

Who: Koel Thomae; Co-Founder, Noosa YoghurtWhat: The Australian Yogurt That’ll Make You Forget About Greek

A walk down the yogurt aisle has turned into a global adventure. There are Greek tubs, sure, but also Icelandic, French, and Australian ones. The Aussie variety landed in America because of Koel Thomae. “I was visiting my family in Australia when I discovered a local yogurt that was quite literally the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” she says.

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So she cold-called a dairy farmer in Colorado, and together they busted their asses to get the stuff on shelves in Whole Foods. The “steep growth trajectory,” as Thomae puts it, wasn’t always easy. She was taking meetings with Target, Walmart, and Publix, and pumping for a newborn in between.

“I’ve had subtle feelings that people were naysayers or had doubts because I’m female,” Thomae admits. “But as Noosa has become successful, there is respect from everyone I meet — and I think that’s a reflection of how times are changing.”

Who: Sarah Kauss; Founder and CEO, S’wellWhat: The Water Bottle That Doubles As A Fashion Accessory

Sarah Kauss doesn’t have time for your comparison games. “People always want to know how being a female leader compares to being a male one, but it’s funny to me,” she says, “because being a woman is all I know. I’d rather people ask me what it’s like to build a $100 million company from scratch.”

Both of Kauss's parents owned businesses, and it was only a matter of time before she did, too. Detours in real estate and accounting brought her here: to founder and CEO of S’well. You’ve no doubt seen the eco-friendly, insulated water bottles everywhere — SoulCycle, picnics, PTA meetings — and they’re sold nearly everywhere, too: Urban Outfitters, Neiman Marcus, Barnes & Noble, the list goes on.

Of the dozens of designs Kauss has created, the $1,500 S’well bottle covered in pink Swarovski crystals best highlights her intentions. The net profits go to the Breast Cancer Research Fund, which is just one of the causes she supports. “We work to celebrate everyone with our programs, including the amazing women that help make S’well great,” says Kauss.

Hundreds of food and booze products have landed on the tasting table at Mouth’s Brooklyn headquarters, but co-founder Nancy Kruger Cohen’s favorites happen to be made by women. “There’s a boozy caramel corn made by the two women who run a bakery slash bar called Butter & Scotch, and Zoe Tsoukatos of Zoe’s Chocolate Co. makes outrageously delicious treats,” she says.

Mouth was formed so that artisanal food makers across the country would have a larger platform to shill their goods. Kruger Cohen is one of three original founders, but she’s the only one still left at the helm. “As both a creative and a female, I probably had to work extra hard to earn a seat at the table, in terms of my involvement with the finance and fundraising sides of the business,” she says.

Kruger Cohen’s two daughters were in grade school when the site launched. “Now, they’re both teenagers,” she starts, “and I hope that growing up with a mom-treprenuer has shown them that if they work hard enough and remain humble, they can do anything.

Katlin Smith’s journey to CEO was written since she was 15-years-old, if you ask her. “My mom thoughtfully look at me and said that I was going to do great things with my life,” she recalls. “It was really a self-fulfilling prophecy. I felt an obligation and motivation.” At 25, Smith finally figured out just what that great thing would be.

Food sensitivities led Smith to develop Simple Mills, a line of gluten-free packaged goods — cookies, baking mixes, crackers — made with only whole, healthful ingredients. “There were skeptics — because of my gender, my age, my geographical location, whether consumers would want the product,” she says. “But entrepreneurship is a resilience game. The longer you stick in there, the further you’ll make it.”

And Smith has made it pretty far: Her brand is an Instagram star in its own right (it’s 76,000 followers strong), and the boxes crowd the shelves at health markets like Whole Foods and online retailers, including Thrive and Amazon. But Simple Mills’ number one fan’s been there from the very beginning, Smith says: “My mom!”

Microwave-ready, frozen foods have a reputation for being unhealthy, but Rachel Drori is trying to change that. “I knew there had to be a way to make clean food accessible without compromising that farm-fresh quality. With convenience in mind, you can’t even find Daily Harvest smoothies, soups, or grain bowls at your local market. That's because Drori will do you one better: She’ll mail the goods right to your house.

Daily Harvest operates on a subscription service model. It started with just smoothies, but as the opportunity to expand came, so did opposition. “There was a group of male investors who adamantly pushed back,” Drori says. “I worked really hard to convince them, show reason, and remind them that the ultimate vision was so much larger than smoothies.”

Drori’s on a mission to make sure the future generation of businesswomen lead with that same confidence. “When given an opportunity, always raise your hand,” she wants them to know. “Follow your passions and have conviction.”

Who: Amy Lacey; Founder and CEO, Cali'flour FoodsWhat: The Pizza You Can Actually Eat On A Diet

If you’ve shunned the cauliflower movement — because, really, how else can you describe it? — you’re on the wrong side of history. Over the past couple years, the cruciferous veggie has weaseled its way into the most unexpected meals — pizza being the most popular. If you’re a fan, thank Amy Lacey.

Her premade cauliflower crusts — under her Cali’flour Foods brand — were the first to launch, even before Trader Joe’s. Last year, Lacey sold five million boxes, but for her, running a business is about more than pushing product. Every month, she has an employee select a charity to spotlight. Most recently, they sent a $10,000 check to an orphanage in Africa. “My mission in life has always been to pay it forward,” Lacey says. “Giving back is the key to success.”

The scoops at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream don’t just taste good — they do good. This past February, every outpost across the country hosted a fundraiser for She Should Run, a nonprofit with an aim to get more women — 250,000, to be exact — to run for elected office by 2030. With 32 shops, Jeni Britton Bauer (yes, she’s the Jeni behind the company) has a great platform for philanthropy, but her brand had more humble beginnings.

Britton Bauer’s very first eponymous shop opened in 2002, in Columbus, OH, and her inventive flavors made it an instant hit. There are the classics, sure — like mint chip and salty caramel — but it’s the ones like goat cheese with red cherries and the just-launched frosé sorbet that keep people coming back.

But even with rapid expansion, the scoop shops can’t keep up with demand. Luckily, you can nab a pint (or four … we’re not counting) online.

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